In September 2006 CADE was asked to share some different ways of exploring and experiencing landscapes for the international and home students of Lepaa College, in Finland. Writtle staff along with colleagues from Clusius College in The Netherlands, facilitated the course ‘Landscape, Gardens and the Arts’ which provided students with an opportunity to consider some of the interrelationships that exist between the arts, design, gardens and the wider landscape. Learning and teaching techniques engaged students in individual and group work, which used the arts as inspirational start points to develop landscape and garden design ideas. Students applied this learning to the creation of pieces of environmental art responding to the wonderful campus of Lepaa College.
Staff from CADE shared the learning experience of a study tour of the gardens of Western Finland with the students on the International Program. Ideas were voiced and exchanged on the design, restoration and management issues of these historic gardens, in the current social, political and environmental context.